Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren – All the latest professional wrestling news, gossip and occasional opinion direct to your mailbox.
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1/15 Smackdown TV results: Chris Jericho over John Morrison; CM Punk & Luke Gallows over Cryme Tyme, The Hart Dynasty and Great Khali & Matt Hardy in a four-way; Mickie James over Beth Phoenix; Kane over Dolph Ziggler; and Rey Mysterio over Batista.

We’re looking for reports from the WWE shows this weekend in Jackson, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Augusta, and Florence to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.

Raw is live Monday from Knoxville while SD/ECW tapes Tuesday in Greenville.

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Eric Escobar, real name Pérez, 30, was released. He had been with the company since 2005, mostly in developmental, before starting with Smackdown last year as the storyline toyboy of Vickie Guerrero. Before WWE, he worked in his home country of Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council under Carlos Colon, as well as the International Wrestling Association under Victor Quinones.

There are rumors of more releases among WWE people we haven’t yet confirmed.

A senior member of WWE management recently sent an internal memo warning the PR department about scheduling talent for interviews with the media.
They only want talent to conduct interviews with certain publications [mostly those who know little about wrestling] because the talent often says something on tape that the company wants to micromanage such as talking about young deaths in wrestling.

Jim Ross on returning to television: “…I’m happy to say that I’m feeling better than I have in a long time and I’m in a really positive frame of mind. I hope to be back on WWE TV in a couple of months at the most. I’m still unable to completely close my right eye and the paralysis on the right side of my face is still prevalent but I continue to heal which is the main thing.” Ross has been on hiatus since October after suffering his third Bell’s palsy attack en route to Columbia, CS, for a Smackdown taping.

Dwayne Johnson at http://tinyurl.com/yllza25 noted he was originally scheduled to host Raw last Monday but instead went to Mexico to promote his new movie. He said he hopes to make an appearance in the summer:
“The goal is to go back and do something special. I talked to Vince a couple of months ago and we’re trying to come up with something.”

Kelly Kelly was a guest on the UK show Soccer AM on Saturday morning.
Nothing very noteworthy. She talked about doing gymnastics in high school and was on target for the Olympics, but, “I broke my ass,” she said, after impaling her backside on a bed post and presumably breaking her tailbone.

Hall of Fame tickets are now sold out. As noted, LiveNation.com was booking the event on behalf of WWE and couldn’t take orders from fans who had their bank card registered outside of North America. They may release some more tickets at a later date.

ECW in Canada which airs on Global has moved to a 3am timeslot.

Superstars on Thursday night did a 0.8 rating.

TNA WRESTLING NEWS

1/15 house show results from Reading, PA: Homicide over Shark Boy; Jay Lethal over Rhino; Hamada & Awesome Kong over Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky; Abyss over Dr. Stevie; Beer Money over The British Invasion; and AJ Styles over Daniels. Show drew an estimated 1200.

TNA presents Genesis live on pay-per-view tonight from Orlando. The advertised line up is AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle for the TNA heavyweight title; Beer Money vs. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash; Abyss vs. Bobby Lashley; The British Invasion vs. Matt Morgan & Hernandez for the tag titles; ODB vs. Tara in a best of three falls match for the Knockouts title; Amazing Red vs. TNA on Sunday night for the X-title; and Desmond Wolfe vs. Pope D’Angelo Dinero. The stip on the Styles-Angle match is if Kurt loses he can’t have another title shot until 2011 unless Styles drops the title to someone else.

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TNA hits the reset button tonight. At least two former WWE names are scheduled to debut; one who criticised Johnny Ace this week in an interview and another who was leaning towards not coming here before the holidays but has since changed their mind.

The six-sided ring has been kioshed as per the orders of Team Hogan/Bischoff. A lot of people were against this. In fact, privately, most people were because they felt it was an innovation that separated them from WWE. They also have a new look set complete with entrance ramp from the backstage area to the ring. I have a feeling the Impact Zone regulars will hate the changes.

Bobby Lashley is still without a Strikeforce opponent on January 30. The Florida Athletic Commission has approved Jimmy Ambriz as a new opponent but there are other issues that probably won’t be resolved until Monday, if at all. On a related note, Hogan told Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated regarding Lashley: “[He has to] make a choice, brother. We need to have a serious talk. He can [do MMA and TNA] but he just needs to be a businessman about it. You can’t stiff us just because you have to train for a fight. You can’t put [Strikeforce] ahead of us; that’s not going to work me. I’m going to fix that real quick. That’s going to happen Sunday. I’m going to see what he’s made of because I’ve been around too long to have someone like him to do business with.” Lashley won’t be wrestling tonight as advertised but he is at the show.

Jeff Hardy goes to trial accused of multiple drug offences on March 17 in Moore County, NC. The District Attorney just added a new charge of conspiracy to traffic opium in addition to existing charges of felony drug trafficking, two felony charges of possession of a Schedule III controlled substance, felony possession of cocaine, felony maintaining a dwelling for redistribution of controlled substances, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

TNA announced on it’s website that UK fans will be able to watch Genesis from 3pm Monday on BT Vision, which is only available in 400,000 homes.
TNA PPV usually airs on the Bravo channel on tape delay. Fans who emailed the TNA office were told there will be more announcements soon regarding PPV in the UK.

Impact on Thursday night did a 1.26 rating. I don’t think that’s either a negative or a positive because it’s too early to tell at this point.
The premiere of Epics did a 0.7 rating which is a very good rating on Spike for 11pm-Midnight.

The Monday Night Wars may resume in March or at least March has been talked about for another live special head-to-head against Raw.

Bubba the Love Sponge wrote on his Twitter: “I say f–k hati. Why do we have to take care of everybody our country is in shambles. Bubba.” A very poor choice of words when the company giving him payoffs and is actively fund raising for the Haiti relief efforts.

Danny Bonaduce on his radio show shot an angle with Jeff Jarrett when TNA was in Philadelphia this past weekend for house shows. Donaduce said he would need three months to get ready for a match with Jarrett. That would likely mean the Lockdown PPV returning to Philly in April. The company got a good deal on the Liacouras Center in 2009, which is located less than two miles from Philadelphia’s City Hall.

OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

Wrestling promoter Ed Chuman passed away a couple of days ago after a lengthy illness. He was 62. Chuman was the founder and promoter of NWA Midwest wrestling and operation director for Reggie Parks Championship belts. He was a mentor to a number of today’s top wrestlers including CM Punk and Awesome Kong. He is survived by his wife Pam and daughter Jennifer. Funeral services are Thursday, 9:30am at Salerno’s Rosedale Chapels, 450 West Lake Street, Roselle, IL 60172.

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